Mitch McConnell accuses Democrats of ‘power grab’ for trying to make Election Day a national holiday

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell felt the wrath of social media on Wednesday after he derided a proposal to declare Election Day a national holiday as a “power grab” by Democrats.

Election Day is typically held on a Tuesday in the United States, which just so happens to be on a school day and a workday, making it much harder for millions of Americans to stand in line for hours to cast a ballot.

Claim Your Free Gift!

Free Dump Trump Toilet Paper

As a Thank You to our readers we're giving away a Free Gift this Holiday season!

Gift in partnership with blueisbest.net

If Election Day were to be a national holiday, however, voter turnout would likely rise because more people would have the whole day to vote.

Even a majority of Americans say that Election should be a national holiday according to a poll taken in November.

But when Democrats introduced a bill known as the “For the People Act of 2019,” McConnell whined about it on the Senate floor.

Bloomberg’s Steven Daniels reported on McConnell’s objections to the bill.

On Senate floor Mitch McConnell rips a federal holiday for Election Day as part of a “power grab” by Democrats to win elections.

McConnell said Democrats want “generous new benefits for federal bureaucrats and government employees” including Election Day holiday and up to six days of paid leave “for any federal bureaucrat who decides they’d like to hang out at the polls during an election.”

McConnell thinks those federal workers would use their time off to work to elect Democrats.
He also ripped federal matching funds for candidates, etc. in HR 1, which he calls “The Democratic Politician Protection Act”

H.R. 1 is the far left’s sprawling effort to seize more control of the political process. It’s an attempt to rewrite the rules of American politics to benefit the Democrats and their friends. pic.twitter.com/tztygT3YPS

This an incredibly dishonest attack by McConnell as usual. What he’s basically claiming is that making Election Day a holiday would benefit Democrats because more people would be able to vote. In short, McConnell is admitting that he wants fewer Americans to be able to vote because it helps Republicans.

The fact is that voter turnout in this country only reached 61 percent in 2016 in an election that saw President Donald Trump win even though he lost the popular vote overall, while winning by narrow margins in several swing states.

Going by a comparison of the math, one would think Republicans would want more Americans to vote since it appears a higher turnout benefited them in 2016 versus a lower turnout in 2018.

The bill also includes reforms like automatic and Election Day registration, nationwide early voting, independent redistricting commissions, and public financing of congressional campaigns. These measures would ensure everyone who wants to vote gets to vote, would prevent the wealthy from buying elections and would stop gerrymandering.

At any rate, Twitter users ripped McConnell a new one for being scared of democracy.

Mitch McConnell just mocked the idea of a national Election Day holiday on the Senate floor.

Our turnout sucks — some of the worst in the world — due to our antiquated system.

Very telling that Mitch McConnell, who’s devoted his career to subverting democracy, is leading opposition to Dems democracy reform bill. He’s admitting Republicans lose when more people vote https://t.co/3wvzZUWDjt

Mitch McConnell just knows that if Election day was a federal holiday Republicans would lose in a landslide, since all Americans would more easily be able to cast their ballots. He’s an un-American coward. https://t.co/N3vpOMPAr9

F*ck off, you democracy-killing ghoul. As someone who denied a president his rightful SCOTUS pick because he was a Dem, you’ve got a lot of nerve.This bill will help repair the years of damage your anti-democracy @GOP party has done through gerrymandering & voter suppression.

This is a naked admission. @senatemajldr and the Republicans don’t want to make it easier for Americans to vote. Why? Because they believe that will help Democrats. What does this say about the GOP and its strategy for hanging on to power? https://t.co/GODaBv9bVt

It’s time for Kentucky to ditch Mitch so that American democracy can stay alive. Because as long as McConnell is in power, voter rights are going to continue being assaulted by Republicans until we all wake up one day and discover that our democracy is gone.

On Tuesday morning, during a press conference with French President Emanuel Macron, President Donald Trump snidely tried to suggest that France should take custody...

ABOUT US

Lefties, Liberals, Progressives, Social Justice Warriors, Old Hippies, Concerned Millenials, Reformed Republicans and Democrats of Whatever Stripe – Welcome Home!
We offer aggregated news – which means our writers credibly source and report on the news of the day. In all fairness, our team leans left and may editorialize from time to time but we are committed to giving you the facts. No tin-foil hat conspiracy theories here!
Our Activism Resource Database is second to none and covers the spectrum from Animal Rights to World Peace (there were no categories that begin with Z). We make every effort to give you the most current information on ways you can make a difference. Whether you are an Armchair Activist or Full-Blown Social Justice Warrior we have something for you.